Coronavirus: Hong Kong faces escalated medical strike despite government move to expand border closures
- Hospital Authority says services ‘seriously affected’ as about 2,700 staff skip work in bid to force government into total border shutdown
- City’s first human-to-human transmission of deadly virus confirmed as 15th patient infected through close contact with her son
Hong Kong’s embattled leader has buckled under intense public and political pressure to announce a further closure of the city’s borders with mainland China to keep out the coronavirus that originated in Wuhan, but still stopping short of the total shutdown demanded by public hospital workers who vowed to escalate a strike they began on Monday.
Chief Executive Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor on Monday said all border crossings would be closed, except for the Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macau Bridge, Shenzhen Bay Port and the international airport, even as the city confirmed its first case of human-to-human coronavirus infection.
The Centre for Health Protection said the city’s 15th case, confirmed on Sunday night to be the mother of a 39-year-old coronavirus patient from Whampoa Garden in Hung Hom, had been infected through close contact with her son.
The 72-year-old woman had not travelled in the 14 days before she fell ill and was quarantined at the Lei Yue Mun Park and Holiday Village.
Appearing at a media briefing without wearing a face mask this time, Lam said major land crossings at Lo Wu and Lok Ma Chau would be closed at midnight, along with the Hong Kong-Macau Ferry Terminal – the three accounted for about 60 per cent of cross-border passenger traffic in 2018.